Temporary Tattoo Ink

As the popularity of airbrush tattoos and body art increases around the world, more and more companies are developing their own airbrush tattoo ink. Being an airbrush tattoo artist for over 6 years now, I have had the opportunity to try out many different brands of temporary tattoo ink. Outlined here are my findings from my own independent experiments.

When shopping for temporary tattoo ink, the first thing you should look for are companies that use only FDA approved ingredients. As of this writing, the FDA does not regulate temporary tattoo inks, so be wary of any company that says their inks are actually FDA approved.
The next point to watch out for is companies advertising concentrated ink. You do not want to change the chemistry of the inks you are spraying by reducing them yourself. Buy inks that are ready to spray. Sometimes you will still have to slightly reduce these airbrush ready inks in order to spray properly, but these minor adjustments will be far more consistent than having to reduce the inks from a concentrated form.
Temporary Tattoo Ink
Okay, now let's get into looking at some actual inks. The first brand of ink I tried was Nazille sold by TATstore. Nazille is a very thick alcohol based ink. The ink requires 25-30 PSI to spray well. It stays in solution well, but still needs to be shaken occasionally. The durability of the airbrush tattoos sprayed with Nazille is very good. I used this ink at a resort pool where I set up frequently, and it was not uncommon for tattoos to last a week or more even with the kids swimming extensively in chlorinated pools.

The next ink I tried out was OCC temporary tattoo ink. This ink is very thin, and settles quickly. There is a good variety of colors. The ink sprays very easily, but tended to clog the airbrush up a bit when I did not shake it enough. The colors were vibrant. However I found this ink to not be very durable for airbrush tattoos on the general public. I think it is much better suited for professional applications such as photo shoots where the longevity of the artwork is of little concern. But tattoos did last an average of 3-5 days.

Another ink trial was done using ABA temporary tattoo ink. This ink is the cheapest name brand airbrush tattoo ink on the market that I know of. While not as thick as the Nazille ink, it is thicker than the OCC, and sprays very well at 25 PSI. There are almost too many different colors to choose from. This ink proved to be very durable for public tattoo use, with longevity ranging from 6-10 days for tattoos.

Jon Bon Jovi Tattoos

Jon Bon Jovi is a great influential American rock musician, songwriter and actor, best known as the lead singer of the band, Bon Jovi.

Jon Bon Jovi has three tattoos on his body including a dragon design on the front side of his left ankle.

On his left shoulder is the famous Superman shield insignia, and on his right shoulder is the skull of a steer/longhorn.

Enjoy these pictures of Jon Bon Jovi's tattoos.

Tracy Bonham Tattoo

Tracy Bonham is a brilliantly gifted American musician who is perhaps best known for her smash hit single entitled "Mother Mother".

Tracy Bonham has a single unknown bracket looking tattoo design which is located on the top of her right wrist.

Orlando Bloom Tattoos

Orlando Bloom is a brilliantly talented and charismatic English actor, best known for his role as Legolas in The Lord of the Rings and as Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy of movies.

Orlando Bloom has two tattoos which we know of including an Elvish design which translates into "The Nine", for the 9 cast members of the fellowship of the ring.

His other tattoo is located on the left side of his lower abdomen and is of a rather small sun.

Orlando has also had numerous fake tattoo designs for movie roles.

Checkout these great pictures of his tattoos.

Yasmine Bleeth Tattoo

Yasmine Bleeth is a stunningly gorgeous American actress who is perhaps best known for her role as Caroline Holden on the television series Baywatch.

Yasmine Bleeth has a single visible tattoo on her body, which is a triangle flower design for "Trinity" located on and around her belly button.

Tattoo Suppliers

Getting started in tattooing is not like getting started in any other industry. It is more on par with old fashioned times, wherein which a person who wanted to learn a skill or a craft would have to find a mentor and apprentice underneath them, picking up the skill the old fashioned way: by doing it!

This is mostly still the case for the tattoo industry. One side effect of this is that it is a bit harder to come upon information on all the "tools of the trade" so to speak. There are no textbooks out there called Tattoo Supplies 101! With this in mind, this article will look at the basics involves for tattooing supplies, with the beginner in mind as the reader.

When discussing the basic tattoo supplies involved in this line of work, there are a handful of key pieces. Let us look at them one by one.

1. The Tattoo Machine. Also sometimes called a tattoo gun, a term usually shunned by profession artists, the tattoo machine is the central tool used to give tattoos. They are a ton of different tattoo machines of not just different quality, but of different purposes and even size and shape. On this note, it is very important to have a tattoo machine that fits correctly into the hands of the artist!


2. The Power Supply. Tattoo machines are not battery powered. This means they require an external source of power. Many prefer the power supplies that affix via a cable to the machine and then are turned on and off from an attached foot pedal. This is similar in technique to a sewing machines set up with a foot pedal.

3. The Needles. Needles are what pierce the skin and deposit the ink into the skin itself, creating the tattoo. Artists use shader and liner needles to create different effects of various depths to create the tattoo. Needles are to be used once and then thrown away.

4. The Different Types of Ink. Of course ink is also needed to make a tattoo. Tattooing ink is available in all colors, although black is the most readily available and readily used color out there.

These 4 above tattoo supplies are the main equipment pieces used to make tattoos, but there are actually dozens of other supplies that assist. This goes all the way from gloves to grips to rubber bands to cleaning equipment to ink caps and more. As evident by the contents of many tattoo kits available, when starting with the basics - it is the tattoo gun, needle, ink, and a power supply that allow for the bulk of work to be done by any tattoo artist out there.

Melanie Blatt Tattoos

Melanie Blatt is a tremendously talented and beautiful English singer and occasional actress who is best known as a member of the all girls group entitled All Saints.

Melanie Blatt has a couple of tattoos which we know about, including a large dragon which runs vertically down her left side.

She also has a musical stave tattooed on her right shoulder.

Regarding the musical stave tattoo she has said "There are six lines there instead of five, so the notes don't actually mean anything. It will always remind me of how stupid I was when I was 18".

Jolene Blalock Tattoo

Jolene Blalock is a lovely and talented American actress who is perhaps best known for her role as the "Vulcan T'Pol" in television series Star Trek: Enterprise.

Jolene has a single unknown tattoo design on the inner portion of her right forearm, which appears to be two horizontal lines of text.

David Blaine Tattoos

David Blaine is a brilliantly clever American illusionist and endurance artist who is known for his amazing street and close-up magic tricks.

David Blaine has several tattoo designs on his body, including a large crucifixion scene which covers most of his back, the design is a recreation of Salvador Dalí's famous "Christ of Saint John of the Cross" artwork.

The tattoos on his left arm include, a large marshmallow shaped design with a face, along side a tiger.

On his right arm is a pair of eyes and eyebrows, plus some fake tribal designs seen in the picture below.

His other tattoos include, a cherub angel on the left side of his chest, plus a male figure holding a walking stick while scratching his chin, located on the right side of his abdomen, and finally the numbers 174517 on his forearm, which represents the numbers given to Primo Levi at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.

Robin Black Tattoos

Robin Black is a wild and crazy Canadian glam rock musician and lead singer of the band under the same name, Robin Black.

Robin Black has two extensive sleeve tattoos which both contain tribal designs.

The sleeve tattoo on his right arm contains large black tribal hooks along with a light blue under shade, plus other designs on his lower forearm.

The tattoos on his left arm include more tribal inspired artwork, along with a large rosary with an exceedingly long chain of beads which runs up and down his entire arm.

Robin is also rumored to have his wife's name tattooed on his butt cheek.

Photo by: Dani Dee

Lara Bingle Tattoo

Lara Bingle is a breathtakingly beautiful Australian model who is perhaps best known for her controversial 2006 Australia Tourism advertising campaign.

Lara Bingle has a single tattoo design of the phrase "wish you were here", located on the inner part of her right wrist and is a tribute to her late father, Graham.

Tattoo Lettering Designs

A tattoo writing design, conscionable equivalent with any fad that has skyrocketed to worldwide frenzy, can favor into a tattoo hardship when finished with motion and without any muse. Few grouping who are uneasy to go with the movement of a touristy direction power conscionable vary the gun and get one finished. Ofttimes nowadays these tattoo rushers end up detonating with sadness because the ornament is poorly researched, misspelled, embezzled out of environment, or inked wrong.

Tattoo Lettering Designs

To abstain beingness stuck with a tattoo writing figure that makes you cringe whenever you see it, create in handle the succeeding deciding elements of a eligible tattoo writing ornamentation. It wouldn't arouse to see and copy the criteria if the try is happening up as the thing of a tattoo horror lie.

The schoolbook of tattoo writing moldiness tight something to you

Tattoo lettering is all roughly operator symbolisation and aspect. As specified, the decoration must operate as a protest of how you reach yourself and what you value most in your animation. Because of their rattling individual nature, tattoo writing designs commonly spell out a lingo, an great day, a belief, a effort, or both remaining important passage.

The module of selection should be competent to ingeminate your knowing signification

Tattoo Lettering Designs

Communication barriers within the tattooing mankind hit bimestrial since evaporated due to orbicular pleasing blessing of the tattoo art in incompatible cultures. One of the results is the worldwide implementation of using international languages instead of your endemic ness in a tattoo writing arrangement. It power be because you appreciate the visual temptingness of a naturalized hand, or because the mythology and mysticism of a curious civilisation that is lacking in your own appeals to you. It power also be a compounding of both. Irrespective of the reasons behindhand your select of module, one aim is quibbling can be worded the unvaried way. There are flatbottomed languages that are so clashing that one phrase may not flatbottom know a remotely affiliated equivalent move into the new. For instance, a tattoo lettering designing that should feature "Big Daddy" is inked in Altaic characters, and ends up as "Outsized Ascendent."

The filler and positioning of the tattoo should be fit to the programme
This applies to every tattoo pattern, but it is specially consequential with tattoo lettering because the situation and activity of the tattoo alter the readability of the evince / catchword. This is prefab author complicated by the fatal bleeding of the tattoo ink over experience. So when choosing a tattoo lettering designing, change careful that it is of readable size, the lines are somewhat thickly inked and well-spaced. This would pee your tattoo lettering program understandable justified after ten geezerhood when the peel unavoidably loosens and sags. You should get any grownup advice from your creator on the situation and location that superfine cause your tattoo writing system.

Björk Tattoos

Björk is a brilliantly gifted Icelandic singer-songwriter, composer, actress and music producer, best known for her beautiful voice and outlandish fashion statements.

Björk has two viable tattoos which we are aware of, including a small star behind her right ear.

Her other tattoo design is of the "Vegvisir" (Viking Compass) and is located on her left arm.

Björk has described this tattoo as "It's so I don't get lost" "If the Vikings had bad weather or fog, they used to draw it on their foreheads with a piece of coal. I thought that was a bit much, so I put it there"

Josie Bissett Tattoos

Josie Bissett is a delightful celebrity actress who is best known for her role as Jane Mancini on the television show, Melrose Place.

Josie Bissett has one slightly viable tattoo of a moon and star located on the back of her right ankle, plus another tattoo on her lower hip which she privately revealed on a 1994 airing of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, when she turned her back to the audience and unzipped her pants and showed it to Conan.

Chauncey Billups Tattoos

Chauncey Billups is a fantastically clutch American professional basketball player who has achieved NBA Finals MVP, plus a five-time NBA All-Star, known by his nickname "Mr Big Shot".

Chauncey Billups has a fair amount of tattoo designs, including the word "Smooth" on his upper shoulder with basketballs for the two O's in smooth.

The tattoos on his left arm include a basketball player which resembles himself wearing a crown while spinning a ball, along with the phrase "King of the Hill".

The tattoos on his right arm include the classic "Smile now cry later" masks, along with script above and below.

Bif Naked Tattoos

Bif Naked is a wonderfully creative American-Canadian rock singer-songwriter, poet, cartoonist and actress who is a multi-platinum artist.

Bif Naked is absolutely loaded with tattoos on both arms, back and torso areas, including the words "Hard Core" along with a flower around her belly button.

The tattoos on her left arm include, the Egyptian Eye of Horus, the Hindu deity of Ganesha, along side a large lotus flower, plus a full body portrait of a women located on her forearm, and several other small tattoo designs.

The tattoos on her right arm include, a large dragon on her upper arm, plus a big unknown monster design on her forearm, along with many other designs including some kanji character.

She also has a lotus flower at the top of each shoulder, plus some script tattoos on her right wrist.